GeForce GTX 580 3GB vs Radeon R9 280X

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon R9 280X, which uses a 28 nm design. AMD has clocked the core speed at 850 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM runs at a frequency of 1500 MHz on this particular card. It features 2048 SPUs as well as 128 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
Radeon R9 280X		250 Watts
	Difference: 6 Watts (2%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon R9 280X should be a lot faster than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB overall. (explain)

Radeon R9 280X		288000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
	Difference: 95616 (50%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 280X should be a lot (approximately 120%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 580 3GB. (explain)

Radeon R9 280X		108800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 59392 (120%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB is quite a bit (approximately 36%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the Radeon R9 280X, and able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
Radeon R9 280X		27200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9856 (36%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.